When The Saints Go Marching In

ROUTE 1066: Sunday 1 November 2026

I saw November in, All Saints’ Day, at the Berkhamsted Ball last night – a star-studded Dinner, Dance and Charity Auction, hosted by TV auctioneers John Bly and Charles Hanson, and all in aid of the SAVE CASTLE FIELDS campaign. What a successful evening this proved to be, with many thousands of pounds being raised for the cause (news of the precise total is eagerly awaited). The encouragement from those present has certainly put something of an autumnal spring in my step as I contemplate my forthcoming exertions today on the eve of my ROUTE 1066 walk!

I am very grateful to the SAVE CASTLE FIELDS campaign team and to every one of the many people who have sent me kind messages of support over the last few weeks since my ROUTE 1066 walk was announced. To the wider network of family, friends, neighbours, and followers of my Blog, thank you all for your support – especially given my apprehension in undertaking my first long-distance walk in an English November. Let us hope that the stormy weather continues to hold off, for a while at least!

I have had a lot of views and new subscribers to this Blog over the last two weeks, so please keep following my journey via these daily posts once I start walking tomorrow – and please feel welcome to pass on the details of my website and this Blog to family, to friends, and to anyone you know who may be interested. And let us see if together we can reach my optimistic sponsorship target of 250 plots of Castle Fields over the next few weeks as my ROUTE 1066 walk progresses – all as part of the wider SAVE CASTLE FIELDS campaign generally of course. Thank you all – and see you on the trail from Pevensey Bay tomorrow!

Thank you for following my ROUTE 1066 journey – re-tracing the steps of William the Conqueror in 1066 on his 360-mile campaign trail from Pevensey Bay, via Berkhamsted, and on to Westminster Abbey. If you are following my Blog, enjoying the ramble, and would like to help us to SAVE CASTLE FIELDS for future generations by pledging £39 to sponsor a 3×3-metre square of the land, then please click on this link:

THANK YOU ALL FOR SUPPORTING MY ROUTE 1066 WALK, AND FOR HELPING TO PRESERVE THE LEGACY OF CASTLE FIELDS

My Blog heading today ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’ follows the title of a traditional African-American spiritual that originated in the early 19th Century as a hymn, before becoming a New Orleans jazz standard. Arguably the most renowned early recording of the piece, and the one that I have included on my ROUTE 1066 playlist, is Louis Armstrong and his band’s rendition from 1938. One verse of the popular lyrics to the full version of the song include the words ‘Oh when the horsemen begin to ride’ – another tenuous link perhaps with the history of Pevensey Bay in East Sussex where my walk begins in the morning.